Food, society, recipes and culture.

Ani’s porotos (Chilean bean and pumpkin stew)

2kg white beans (this recipe is for cooking with dried beans. If you use fresh or canned beans you just need to skip the first step and reduce the cooking time)

1 onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

4 longanizas (strong tasting pork sausages)

½kg pumpkin

200g corn (fresh or frozen)

3 humitas (corn paste)

Salt, paprika and ají (or alternatively chili)

A bit of oil for frying

Steps:

– The night (or at least 8 hours) before cooking, put the beans in water.

– Chop the onion and the garlic and fry it in a pot with hot oil until soft.

– Cut the sausages into pieces and add them to the pot to fry.

– Season with paprika and add the beans. Cover the ingredients with cold water and leave to boil under a lit for approximately 1-1½ hour or until the beans are almost tender.

– Cut the pumpkin into pieces and add it to the pot. Also add the corn.

– Season with salt and ají/chili to your taste and leave to cook until the pumpkin has become soft.

– To make the dish more “mushy” add the corn paste in the end and let it cook for 10 minutes before serving the dish.

* Some people like it better without the corn paste and some add a bit of spaghetti in the end.

This recipe comes directly from the kitchen of mother-in-law and the pictures are from the last time she cooked this for us when we were visiting Puerto Montt in South of Chile. Always a great food experience!